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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23203267">That sweet thaw</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingalonelypath/pseuds/wanderingalonelypath'>wanderingalonelypath</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fair Game Week 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Everyone else gets a cameo, M/M, Shovel Talk, and protective niece hours, but not from who you'd expect!!, it's loving weiss hours</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:09:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,221</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23203267</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingalonelypath/pseuds/wanderingalonelypath</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When he and Qrow first started dating, he honestly didn’t know what to expect from Qrow’s nieces.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fair Game Week 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1665913</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>84</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>That sweet thaw</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When he and Qrow first started dating, he honestly didn’t know what to expect from Qrow’s nieces.</p>
<p>He had guesses, of course. Clover considered himself a fairly observant man; he had to be, after all, to get where he was today. The Captain of the Ace Ops had to be observant, had to be able to assess any and all situations and enemies present to devise the best outcome. Clover was also top of his class in the Academy, but he wasn’t one to boast, no matter how much Qrow claimed he was a show-off.</p>
<p>Clover never bothered to tell him that he was only really a show-off around him. Qrow would no doubt make a joke about him peacocking or something.</p>
<p>He figured Yang would be the overprotective one. The one that would pull him aside and give him some sort of threatening talk so he wouldn’t hurt her Uncle. It didn’t take an extremely observant person to see how much they cared about Qrow. He was glad that they did, but he fully expected a shovel talk of some sort from the brawler.</p>
<p>Ruby, he thought, would be confused. Skilled huntress though he knew her to be, he figured she would still be innocent in terms of romance and love. She was only 17, two years younger than the rest of her team, and he figured she didn’t really have an opportunity for awkward crushes and teenage flirtations after being thrown into the thick of the war at 15.</p>
<p>Of course, all of his expectations were shot from the moment the kids found out about him and Qrow. Honestly, he should have expected as much from this group. They tended to do exactly the opposite of what was expected of them.</p>
<p>His first surprise didn’t come from either of Qrow’s blood-related nieces. No, it came in the form of one Weiss Schnee.</p>
<p>He had never met the former heiress before, despite being reasonably acquainted with her sister and the both of them living in Atlas in somewhat intersecting social circles. He met her at the same time as all the others and, while Clover liked to think he was open-minded and non-judgmental, he expected her to act like…well, a Schnee. Maybe not the cruel and cold caliber of her father, but at least the disciplined and shrewd perfection of her sister. But after knowing her for a few weeks, Clover realized that the title of ‘black sheep’ of the Schnee family didn’t go to Winter, as he previously thought, but wholeheartedly went to Weiss.</p>
<p>Despite her icy exterior and structured battle tactics, Weiss was the opposite of cold.</p>
<p>She showed her affection freely with her teammates, whether that be in compliments after a battle or a fond smile after Ruby or Yang made a stupid joke. She trained with her partner and had tea with Blake and went shopping with Yang and generally treated her team as her family, and the other four of their ragtag group as well. It didn’t take him long to realize that her radical love was her own form of defiance; she shook off the cruelty of her past with the exact opposite: care, warmth, laughter, and acceptance.</p>
<p>So when she cornered him at 7pm, just outside the training rooms, he was a bit embarrassed to say he didn’t have a clue of what to expect.</p>
<p>At first, she didn’t say anything. Her arctic gaze practically pinned him to the spot. He could almost feel the sweat on the back of his neck freeze with the force of it. She seemed to be deliberating something, and just as he opened his mouth to clear the air, she spoke.</p>
<p>“You care for Qrow, don’t you?”</p>
<p>Whatever he was thought she was going to say, it wasn’t that. “I…yes. I do.”</p>
<p>She let out a soft ‘hmm’ and her eyes began to appraise him. He felt like he was being examined by one of his former Professors after a spar; like she was trying to assess if he was good enough. A buzz went down his spine that he belatedly realized was nerves. He was nervous, no, he was downright a little afraid of the 19-year-old, newly minted Huntress in front of him.</p>
<p>“So do we. All of us.” She took a steady breath, eyes darting around as if searching for something malevolent hiding in the shadows. For a second, Clover’s mind flickered back to their first mission together, right before the kids got their licenses and the sudden appearance of Jacques Schnee at the Amity site. He thought Jacques might have been a bit less of an asshole to see his wayward daughter, to know that she was at least alive. He was wrong. Their reunion was nothing short of antagonistic and manipulative, and the breath Weiss let out as soon as her father was out of sight spoke volumes of their relationship. He wondered if she was looking for him in the shadows; if she had a bit of lingering fear that he was going to drag her away from everything important to her.</p>
<p>“Qrow was there for us when no one else was. He wasn’t perfect at it,” She let out a small chuckle. “But he was always there to defend us. From Grimm, from Salem, even from our own demons.” Her hand came up to rub at the opposite elbow. “He’s been through a lot, and the last thing he needs is someone to break his heart.” She took a step closer, and all traces of the slightly unsure teenager left her face, leaving behind nothing short of steel.</p>
<p>“So don’t.”</p>
<p>Her gaze was unwavering, and Clover found himself nodding before he even realized he was doing it. “I have no intention of breaking his heart, Weiss.” She had him pinned to the spot for another moment as if trying to figure out if he was lying or not, before she leaned back, a smile on her face, and Clover felt the slight tension in the air bleed away.</p>
<p>“Good.” She said, before turning on her heel primly and walking away.</p>
<p>The next morning at breakfast, Jaune slid him a cup of coffee with a smile before carrying his and Marrow’s off. Ren asked to train with him the next time he was free, and just as he was agreeing Nora walked by, giving him a slap on the back so hard that it almost made him spill his coffee, and asked if she could join for a 2v1 with a grin. Yang snickered when he let out a rare yawn, asking if he had had a tiring night before Blake could stop her, even though he caught a wicked grin on the faunus’s own face. Ruby, to his surprise, snickered along with them, asking if he’d had a long night of using his rod, which did make him spill his coffee and had the rest of his own team, the traitors, break into guffaws.</p>
<p>The laughing cut off abruptly as Qrow entered, rubbing his eyes with a grumble as he stole a sip of Clover’s coffee and dropped a kiss on his cheek, and this time Clover caught the small, happy, smiles that all the kids sent their way when they didn’t think him and Qrow were paying attention.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Day 3!! We love a shovel talk ft. a protective niece!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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